In my photo he's carrying what looked like some sort of breakfast bar, thrown to him by someone on the bridge. Which part of "Feeding of animals is a serious offence" do people not understand?? In another photo he's trailing a length of toilet paper! Spoilt the picture completely.

During our visit to Kruger this past September while on one of the Bridges near Letaba we watched a Yellow-Billed Kite riding the wind over the bridge for over a half hour, the effortless gliding was spectacular.

I watched him gliding sideways about 3 meters above the bridge deck from the south end all of the way to the north end of the bridge, he couldn't have been much more than a meter above my head when he silently slid by. It was amazing! All he did was ever so slightly move tail and flight feathers, to cruise back and forth.

1. Mrs P once had a chicken wing snatched out of her hand at Letaba by a YBK. We had no warning and hadn't even seen it circling. One minute we were chatting over lunch, the next second we were both screaming in panic! She ended up with a scratch on her thumb, but otherwise, it was a surgically-executed strike

2. Going back to BB's original post and comments about the birds being gregarious when feeding we had an amazing sighting up in Hwange, in Zim during the recent game census when we watched a squadron of about 12 birds following each other on dive bombing missions over a waterhole./ They were snatching frogs out of the water.

On nearly every dive a bird picked up a big frog, but they only had about a 50 per cent success rate and keeping the slippery frogs in their talons. It was amazxing and quite funny (though not for the frogs) to see the poor amphibians flying through the air and being dropped like skipping stones.

What an awesome experience! The chicken wing grab and go, would have been amazing and somewhat scary to witness, I am sure the SO was not amused. I would have loved to watch the frog dive bombing runs. I saw your photo of the flying frog on your blog, what a great shot!

My SO and I are fascinated with Raptors, and have a number in our area of America that are great to watch. Red-tailed Hawk, Cooper's Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawks live nearby, and we see them regulary. We also have American Bald Eagles that fly over our house on occasion.

This bird was seen on the Lower Sabie road on 10 Jan. I initially thought it was a yellow billed kite but looking at the photos, now I'm not so sure. The behaviour was also something I'd not seen before. It seemed to have spread its wings to cover the branch but when he returned to a more normal stance there did not appear to anything there for him to hide, nor did it any stage appear to be eating, rather just resting

The above are all of the same bird

Thew following photo is of another bird perched in the same tree which we thought was the same species, but again are not sure

Any help would be greatly appreciatedThanksPat

"In the end we conserve only that which we love, we love only that which we understand, we understand only that which we are taught" (Baba Dioum, Senegalese Ecologist)

um, I can only guess here, but it could be to Cool Down, looking at the blue sky and the heat of the lowveld, spreading its wings like this will allow for the air to pass through the feathers to cool down via transpiration. If it was cloudy or early morning, this would be for the opposite reason, to increase surface area and obtain more heat....This could also be a sign of submission, given a larger bird of prey or other kite was bothering it